Biden campaign makes big Black history push to re-energize Black voters

ATLANTA — This Black History Month, President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign is making a big push to publicize the Black history made under the Biden-Harris administration.

The question is how much that message matters to those Black voters who are wavering on the edges of the Biden coalition right now.

From a historically diverse administration, complete with the nation’s first Black vice president and defense secretary, to historic lows in Black unemployment and historic highs in Black business ownership, Biden’s re-election campaign has spent millions of dollars driving that record home to voters ahead of a general election in which he’ll need strong support among Black voters to secure victory.

“Black history is American history,” one Biden campaign radio ad begins. “Our sacrifices and achievements make this country stronger, so we celebrate Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of Defense Gen. Lloyd Austin and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.”

It’s one of two radio ads released by the campaign in celebration of Black History Month. The spot is airing in battleground-state cities with large Black populations, including Atlanta, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Detroit, and on popular radio shows like the D.L. Hughley Show and The Breakfast Club.

“President Biden has demonstrated his commitment to Black America from day one by building a team of history makers,” deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks said in a statement released alongside the ads.

But recent interviews by NBC News suggest Biden’s efforts to highlight what his campaign has framed as a historic commitment to the Black community may be undercut by sustained backlash to his policy stances, particularly what some voters perceive as his rejection